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Linda Farmer, Certified Zentangle Teacher

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How to draw Q-MI

Zentngle pattern: Q-Mi. Image © Linda Farmer and TanglePatterns.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may use this image for your personal non-commercial reference only. The unauthorized pinning, reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.We have our first long weekend of the year here in the USA with the observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday.

It appears that a big winter blizzard, code named Harper, could be shutting down the northeast this weekend too.  On the bright side, together they make for quality tangling time. Also reading, snoozing … Be safe and stay warm!

Taiwan CZT Damy (Mei Hua) Teng shares her 30th tangle on the site with us today!

Q-Mi is a Cadent-inspired tangle that produces a pretty, floral motif in a very simple way.

Damy writes that Q-Mi is named for her cat. I left my example of Q-Mi quite basic but in this tile Damy shows a host of ways to embellish Q-Mi.

q-mi-tile1-damy-teng

Q-Mi is “somewhat similar to tangling Cadent. Q-Mi uses the elemental C and S strokes.”

In describing what it means for a pattern to be “drawn as a tangle”, Zentangle® co-founder Rick Roberts also describes what is meant by “elemental strokes”:

‘Drawn as a tangle’ means that you repeat a series of elemental strokes in a certain structured way so you inevitably end up with a particular pattern without needing to know what the pattern you are creating is supposed to look like.

Usually the number of elemental strokes needed are 3 or less. Often, you only need one or two. By ‘elemental strokes’ we mean a dot, a straight(-ish) line, a curve (like a parenthesis), a reverse curve (like an ‘S’), and an orb or circle.

Here’s another lovely tile from Damy with more ways to embellish Q-Mi.

For Step 1 in tangling Q-Mi, I found it helped in aligning everything to create all the matching pairs of C-curve strokes, like parentheses, first:  ) (   )  (  — then turn my tile and “close up” the shapes. The final S strokes create the floral element. Easier than the embellishment decision-making!

Damy illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Q-Mi below.

How to draw the Zentangle pattern Q-Mi, tangle and deconstruction by Damy (Mei Hua) Teng. Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining what copyright means in plain English. “Always let your conscience be your guide.” ~ Jiminy Cricket

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5 comments to How to draw Q-MI

  • Margaret

    Ohhhhh this is outstanding!!
    Thank you so much for another beautiful Damy tangle!

  • Rosemary Turpin

    Oh, I have had SUCH fun tangling Damy`s Q-mi. Those central stars look as though their arms are twisted around each other! It also reminded me of when Iwas young and my mother was in amateur plays and she would want to practice her memorized lines. She`d say “Cue me!”
    and I`d read her the ends of the lines occurring before hers.

  • HeidiSue

    This is a wonderful tangle! It is always so much fun when a tangle “morphs” into a different shape, or you can see two shapes on the edges of each other. Going to have MUCH FUN playing! Thank you, Damy!

  • Lee K

    Love it!It came together so easily, and looks so pretty.
    These will be seen as poinsettia next Christmas season?
    Thank you, Damy.

  • Liz P

    Thank you so much Damy!
    Q-MI reminds me so much of the beauty that comes from simplicity. And that so much of life is based in simplicity, and beauty 😉 , if we just take the time to look and appreciate everything.
    ^-^; I don’t quite know why I’m being quite so philosophical, maybe part of the quotation from Rick Robert’s and ‘drawn as a tangle and ‘elemental strokes’ was part of it.
    But it is truly beautiful tangle whether it’s in the original or the embellished form, where I think it became spectacular. And so easy to do! I will definately be trying this soon!
    Thank you again for the pattern Damy!
    -sorry it’s a bit of a long post ^.^; –

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